I was asked by a client and need some help in answering this question. Why should someone has to have his or her own email server when he or she can use the web based one?
Well we were using an ISP-hosted POP3 account here until recently, we used a POP3 connector to forward email on to our internal exchange server. It worked well and our ISP had the option of scanning for viruses etc. We did have some issues with regards to AOL blocking our emails because they could not reverse check them against our domain name, this can be revolved by forwarding mail through your host's mail servers.
We have now moved onto a dedicated email server and I'm much happier with it.
At the end of the day if you are a small company it's cheaper and easier to use a mail service hosted with an ISP or Hotmail/yahoo etc. If you are larger you benefit from having so much more control and are not at the mercy of somebody elses 'technical difficulties'.
1)You can use internal e-mail for mail not leaving your organization, not be bound by attachment limits, and not worry about losing ALL email, temporarily or permanently, due to outtages.
2)You can backup all of your e-mail data easier
3)More direct control, if you want to implement new features
Those are the top three, IMHO.
Note that there ARE now hosted Exchange solutions, and the price isn't too bad for a small organization.
Simplicity of interaction with the ISP. All they have to do is point the MX at my router's public IP and keep it that way. Keeps their involvement to a minimum and a straightforward relationship.
If something happens to them, it's a slam dunk to move to a different provider.
Since I use Exchange, for remote users, OWA provides the needed connections.
It is also useful to host your email services to monitor messages sent or recieve. IT Dept's have a larger role in making sure the company is properly represented by employees and that proprietary information is not leaked to competitors.
Highly recommended but costs are higher than with an ISP hosting mail....
Had a small client 40 PC network which relied on an ISP, then I place a POP mail server online (Imail with Declude), what a relief. Cost $4800.00 for a machine with a raid 5, the Email server software, Declude, and the AV software
( about the cheapest you can go with AV and anti spam protection).
With an ISP managing the mail 3 1/2 years back...
Every change to an account was a nightmare, sometimes taking two weeks.
They played with the mail service, our mail would go down more than a few times a year, sometimes hours, sometimes a couple of days. Lost email and the host Website for 2 days due to their system getting a virus.
If their mail server has the same AV as your network has, your only protected by the one set of AV definition files, as in this case we both had Norton CE, not great.
The ISP provided no spam protection, and scanned with one anti virus, the ISP would not provide a PTR record. AOL gave us hell, blocking mail.
The email server I installed ran anti spam and 3 different AV engines and definitions. Anti-relaying is in place along with a PTR record so AOL and other ISPs do not block the mail.
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Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial
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